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About

The Young Turks, one of the most popular online news shows in the world, has amassed a YouTube network of millions of subscribers and billions of views. But that wasn’t always the case.

MAD AS HELL documents the tumultuous, at times hilarious and altogether astonishing trajectory of Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks’ main host and founder, as he traverses from unknown Public Access TV host to internet sensation by way of YouTube. When he ventures into national television by landing the 6 PM timeslot on MSNBC, Cenk’s uncensored brand of journalism is compromised as he becomes a thorn in the side of traditional news media; his unwavering dedication to speaking the truth puts him at the very nexus of the battle between new and old media.

Cenk Uygur

Cenk Uygur is the host and founder of “The Young Turks,” an online news show covering politics, pop culture and lifestyle that has become one of the top YouTube partners with more than 75 million views per month. Cenk is a former host of “The Young Turks on Current TV” and “MSNBC Live” and has appeared numerous times on CNN, CNN Headline News, E! Entertainment Channel, Al Jazeera, ABC News, Voice of America, NPR and Fox News Channel. He is one of the most popular bloggers on The Huffington Post, and also a contributor to Daily Kos and Politico. Uygur is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and Columbia University Law School. He worked as a lawyer, television writer and television host before founding “The Young Turks.”

Jan Bijvoet - Theo

Jan Bijvoet was born in Antwerp in 1966. He has been one of the artistic directors and actors of the Antarctica Theater since 2005. He has also performed in film and television, guest-starring in a number of series. He has starred in the films AD FUNDUM, THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN (Academy® Award nominee), and BORGMAN (Official Selection – Competition, Cannes 2013). In 2007, he was nominated for the Flemish Culture Award of Scenic Arts. Referring to the German explorer who was the inspiration for his character, he reflects that even though Grünberg tried to integrate with the native people, he could not let go of his white spirit. “He had the western way of thinking, and he wanted to carry hundreds of things to study. Love is possession, too. He is also afraid of death. He doesn’t understand why, but it’s because deep down, he is a materialist since his formation, even though he tries to drift away from it.”

Brionne Davis - Evan

Brionne Davis was born in Texas and started acting at a very early age, playing Tom Sawyer. He has starred and taken leading roles in more than 30 independent feature length and short films and television series, including REST STOP: DON’T LOOK BACK (2008), DOROTHY AND THE WITCHES OF OZ (2012), Pandemic (2007), NARCISSIST (2014), SAVAGED (2013), and HOLIDAYS WITH HEATHER (2006). In New York, Brionne starred in the Theatre Row adaptation of Sam Shepard’s “True West.” He has appeared in many theater productions all across the country, including “Wallenburg” at the Soho Playhouse, “A Noble Exile” in Los Angeles and “Nueva York,” a one-man show that he wrote
￼ and produced, inspired by the writings of Tennessee Williams. Davis’ character “Evan” in EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT was inspired by the great botanist and explorer Richard Evans Schultes, and he feels close to him in his love of and search for plants and nature.

Antonio Bolívar Savador - Old Karamakate

Antonio Bolívar Salvador is one of the last survivors of the Ocaina people. He resides near Leticia and has had some previous experiences in filmmaking, but he prefers not to speak about them because he feels that they were disrespectful to his culture. Besides playing one of the main characters, he also served as interpreter for the Tikuna, Cubeo, Huitoto languages and even English, as he became the teacher of the international actors. He represents the best of the Amazonian people: willing to trust foreigners, to transmit their knowledge and thankful to be treated respectfully. That’s the most important aspect of the film to him: “It is a film that shows the Amazon, the lungs of the world, the greater purifying filter and the most valuable of indigenous cultures. That is its greatest achievement.”

Nilbio Torres - Young Karamakate

Nilbio Torres has never set foot in a gym; his amazing physique has been sculpted by the hardships of the jungle and the hard work he’s done since he was little. The 30- year-old has only worked in agriculture and this is his first experience with the cinema. He has a hard time expressing himself in Spanish, as he speaks mostly Cubeo. But he manages to find words to tell what this experience has meant to him. He feels the film is faithful to the story of his ancestors. “What Ciro is doing with this film is an homage to the memory of our elders, in the time before: the way the white men treated the natives, the rubber exploitation. I’ve asked the elders how it was and it is as seen in the film, that’s why we decided to support it. For the elders and myself it is a memory of the ancestors and their knowledge.”

Yauenkü Miguee - Manduca

Yauenkü Miguee was born and raised in Nazareth, a Tikuna community of the Amazon, 26 years ago. He is now a student of physical education in Bogotá and is about to achieve his greatest goal: to become a professional. He defines his participation in the film as a new experience in his life, this time from the field of art and corporal expression, which reinforced his thinking and showed him how to see life from different perspectives. He believes this film should be shared not only with the people of the locations, but all across the country, with all the indigenous peoples in Leticia and the Amazon, with the leaders, in schools and universities. He is the voice of many Manducas, a voice that, far away from the so-called civilization, cries out for a more civilized attitude towards Colombia’s indigenous communities.

Andrew Napier - Director

Andrew Napier was born and raised in Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin - Madison. In 2009, after working on Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds in Berlin, Germany, he moved to Los Angeles. Andrew was a producer of the 2012 Academy Award®-winning short film Curfew, and later edited its feature adaptation Before I Disappear (SXSW 2014 Audience Award Winner, IFC Films). His screenplay for Dogtooth, a remake of the Academy Award®-nominated Greek foreign film, is currently in development at Mandalay Pictures. Andrew directed the feature documentary Mad as Hell (Hot Docs 2014 Conscious Media Award Winner, Oscilloscope Laboratories), which follows Cenk Uygur, whose online news show The Young Turks has amassed over two billion views on YouTube. Andrew also directed the award-winning narrative short Grandma’s Not A Toaster (Tribeca 2013) and the feature documentary Mary & Bill (Wisconsin Film Festival 2011 Best Documentary).

Andrew produced and edited the acclaimed documentaries The Past is a Grotesque Animal (Sundance Now Doc Club, Oscilloscope Laboratories, 2014), about the band of Montreal and frontman Kevin Banes, and Bounce: How the Ball Taught the World to Play (SXSW 2015, Doc NYC). Andrew edited and executive produced the short film Wasted Beauty for producer Eva Longoria. Andrew co-produced the romantic comedy Lust For Love (2014), starring Fran Kranz and Dichen Lachman, served as an executive producer for the documentary The Culture High, and for the dark comedies The Lord of Catan starring Amy Acker, and Limbo starring H. Jon Benjamin. Andrew edited two episodes for First Look Media’s (Spotlight) documentary series Primaries, about the 2016 election, which aired on Fusion TV.

Credits

Gallery

Press

"Andrew Napier’s “Mad as Hell” does indeed play like a real-life update of Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayevsky’s skewering of TV news... this reviewer had never heard of Uygur or TYT but found the film's account of them engaging enough to leave him intrigued and impressed with both."ROGEREBERT.COM

"Mad as Hell is best described as an unlikely version of the American dream... Perhaps most fascinating about Mad as Hell is that it gives an intimate look into the changing media landscape birthed by the internet and the public’s desire for new voices. The film beautifully follows Cenk and his loyal team, with their uncensored brand of journalism, navigating the traditional world of news while simultaneously finding themselves at the forefront of a burgeoning new media. Not only is this a personal story about Cenk Uygur, its also a glimpse into an ongoing media and information revolution from an original and unknowing pioneer... Mad as Hell does a wonderful job of painting the zeitgeist of mainstream media as a controlling institution without feeling conspiratorial. It is a cautionary tale for those who jump in principles first: principles don’t always make money or the type of fame you desire."MUSE

"Unexpectedly, the film best serves as a cautionary anecdote that epitomizes the mutual apprehension between Internet-age start-ups and establishment media"LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Napier reveals his unusual story, revealing his transformation from moderate Republican to liberal Democrat to a progressive critical of both parties and of corporate personhood – all the while avoiding hagiography to present the affable figure in a more rounded manner... Napier offers an engaging look at media and political criticism through the ups and downs of the Young Turks program, revealing the possibilities, and limits, of new media."WHAT (NOT) TO DOC

"The myth of Cenk “Young Turk” Uygur gets a serious burnishing in “Mad as Hell,” a cheerfully angry and yet upbeat documentary about the creator and host of online’s “Young Turks” Youtube show."MOVIE NATION

“Andrew Napier’s interesting and often funny documentary, Mad as Hell, chronicles the rise of talk show host and political junkie Cenk Uygur, a man disgusted with the state of politics and news media... Mad as Hell reveals a man who is (deliberately or not) at the intersection of fundamental changes in American politics and news media practices, the decline of network television, the growth of the Internet, and rapidly changing consumer demands.”PRETTY CLEVER FILMS